Host: Holly Brauner

Present: Frank Allaby (CFWC), Angie Andebol (LCCS), Jane Benfey (GLFRC), Andy Chandonnet (YWCA), Gregg Croteau (UTEC), Eduardo Czarnobai (LTC), Lara Frankena (UTEC), Kathy Horn (Girls, Inc.), Dan MacNeil (LTC), Maryellen McEleney (New Beginnings), Chris McClure (Pathfinders / Milestone), Kevin Mullen (New Beginnings), Felicia Sullivan (LTC), Dan Toomey (CIRCLE –UML), Ed West (MRC /RRC)

Guests: Martin Stevens - Mediaworks (Capetown, South Africa)

I.    Introductions / New People

• Martin Stevens (Mediaworks) works with communities in South Africa to use media as a means to create community dialogue and address community issues. He is on a one month tour of the U.S. and is meeting with various folks to see how we are dealing with issues around community development and media / technology implementation.

II.    Announcements / Updates

• A letter will be going out to about 200 NPOs regarding the Community Resource guide. Be on the look out for this letter and the survey to follow
• UTEC will begin its "Take Technology Home" program. 4 families (1 teen and 1 parent or guardian) will meet once a week for 2 hours for 12 weeks on a basic technology education and training program. Each of these families will take home a laptop at the end of the class.
• CFWC is running a workshop on "Finding Funding on the World Wide Web" on March 29^th from 9am - 12pm in the CRC at LTC
• CFWC will be offering an Excel training class at the Charter school
• The year end report of the first year of DoE Funding is due - surveys will be going out to various sites.
• Recruiting for the next year of VISTA should begin now
• Lowell will be hosting the next regional meeting of New England CTCs on April 20^th from 8:30am - 12pm at the Alumni Lounge @ UML
• There are still travel grants available for folks interested in attending the Annual CTCNet conference
• UTEC is organizing a trip to Boston-based youth centers (Computer Clubhouse & Codman Square Health Center) there are still seats available for youth from other sites to join in
• UTEC will be holding its first fundraiser on June 9^th - it will be a Caribbean dinner - more info to come - tickets will probably be about $30
• Girls, Inc. just had 10 girls finish a 4 page newsletter and will be sponsoring a Science and Technology career day
• PC Support and Maintenance will start in mid April and run for 2 months - 2 days a week for three hours each day - price will be $50 for materials
• MCSE will also start in mid April - Contact Dan MacNeil (dan@ltc.org) for more information on this networking class

 III.    Discussion: Technology Education, Curricula, etc.

• The group began the discussion broadly with a description of what folks were involved with along broad lines of working with adults or youth and the general population.
• New Beginnings - working with adults around personal goal attainment (i.e. back to school, find a job, personal enrichment), technology a tool to reach these goals
• Caleb - technology program primary objective is to make adults feel comfortable around technology and to build job skills. ESL is a concern. kids at Caleb also a comfort level and an educational resource
• St. Julie - population is adults, mostly southeast Asian, integrates technology into ESL program and teaches basic computer skills
• UTEC - population is youth, integrates technology into other programs (i.e. graffiti art, DJ mixing, video production) and is a youth resource for education, basic comfort
• YWCA- population is youth, formal training (i.e. 12 week web design class), support other program objectives (i.e. peer leadership using technology to create flyers), creating ads for newspaper, creating health related PSAs
• Determining basic skill set so we all understand what we mean by basic skills. Skill assessment / inventory is a good start to this. Not only about the skills but an understanding of the terminology as well is needed
• Focusing on project-based learning that is goal oriented and issue related makes learning easier, but what do we mean by project-based learning?
• An example is Caleb in a North Adams development has a group of seniors working with youth to create a cookbook from favorite recipes of the older residents aided by computer-based design taught to them by younger residents
• Project-based learning is conceptual rather than skill based, has a goal or end product
• Yet at times it is necessary to provide detailed in-depth skills (i.e., learn what every button and menu does) or rather to learn the possibilities of technology and know what is possible
• How do we support self-learning and independent learning but still provide support. CFCW has an Excel tutorial that is offered in a classroom setting, is self-paced, but has human support.
• This brought up a discussion of the need for public access with human and material resources to facilitate / practice what is learned in a structured environment. A model of structured classes with supported access works well
• Again working on the assumption that basing training in the individuals goals and building technology training around that is most useful
• Suggestion that we as a group use the basic skill inventory / assessment idea to create a basic Consortium certification process. That we determine or provide a template for a standard youth curriculum, a standard adult curriculum, and then create a broad understanding of resources so we can direct people to the most appropriate organization for their broad educational needs using technology (i.e. needs ESL, looking for workforce development, want to make media, are a youth, are homeless, etc.)
• As a group we need an approach to standardizing basic skills assessment, identifying appropriate training facilities, and public access venues.
• Also would help to map where resources are so we can determine where expansion and resources need to go next.

Next Meeting

• Consortium Meeting will be FRIDAY, April 20^th from 8:30am - 12:00 pm at the Alumni Lounge at UML on University Ave. This will be a New England gathering of Community Technology Centers (CTCs).